Press freedom and democratic quality

The press freedom rank and the Democratic Quality Index, with the published scores behind it and India's position against four peers.

Every chart runs from 2004 at the left edge to 2026 at the right and changes side between 2013 and 2014. Dashed lines are the two period averages. A gap is a year with no published figure.

Press freedom rank, of 180 (1 is best)

2004-2013 average120

2014-2026 average145

Latest, 2026157

23 of the 23 years have a published figure; the others are left empty.

Source and method

Reporters Without Borders, World Press Freedom Index (annual). RSF published a single 2011-12 index; its rank (131) is shown for both 2011 and 2012. RSF ranked 167 to 179 countries in 2004-2013 and 180 since.

Democratic Quality Index, 0 to 1

2004-2013 average0.57

2014-2026 average0.37

Latest, 20260.28

23 of the 23 years have a published figure; the others are left empty.

Source and method

Constructed: geometric mean of V-Dem Liberal Democracy Index (v2x_libdem) × (Freedom House/100) × ((180-RSF rank)/180) × V-Dem Core Civil Society Index (v2xcs_ccsi); see data/compute_indices.py. The two V-Dem columns are the published series verbatim; earlier approximations that overstated the pre-2014 baseline were corrected on 15 August 2026.

The published scores behind the index

The Democratic Quality Index is the geometric mean of these four published series, each scaled 0 to 1. The values are as their publishers released them. V-Dem and Freedom House have published nothing for 2026 yet, so the 2026 index uses their 2025 scores, the latest published. RSF ranked 167 to 179 countries in 2004-2013 and 180 since; the index divides every rank by 180, and scaling each year by the countries actually ranked lowers the 2004-2013 average by about 0.01.

Democratic Quality Index inputs
Series	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
V-Dem Liberal Democracy Index	0.578	0.573	0.569	0.569	0.569	0.539	0.532	0.532	0.525	0.522	0.488	0.417	0.406	0.371	0.363	0.324	0.292	0.307	0.291	0.273	0.281	0.260	.
Freedom House score, of 100	76	76	76	76	76	76	76	77	76	77	78	77	77	77	75	71	67	66	66	66	63	62	.
RSF press freedom rank	120	106	105	120	118	105	122	131	131	140	140	136	133	136	138	140	142	142	150	161	159	151	157
V-Dem Core Civil Society Index	0.826	0.760	0.760	0.760	0.760	0.760	0.744	0.744	0.743	0.735	0.669	0.576	0.555	0.523	0.471	0.454	0.404	0.421	0.421	0.346	0.302	0.302	.

India beside four peers

Country	V-Dem 2014	V-Dem 2025	RSF rank 2014	RSF rank 2026
India	0.488	0.260	140	157
Brazil	0.783	0.704	111	52
Turkey	0.252	0.110	154	163
Hungary	0.521	0.315	64	74
South Africa	0.641	0.633	42	21

Source

V-Dem Liberal Democracy Index (v2x_libdem), latest release (data through 2025; the 2026 column carries the 2025 observation forward) + RSF World Press Freedom Index 2026. Both V-Dem columns are on the SAME index: an earlier version of this table had the 2014 column on the Electoral Democracy Index and the 2026 column on the Liberal Democracy Index, which overstated India's decline. Corrected 15 August 2026.